Thursday, February 5, 2009

25 Random Facts

1. I was almost born on February 29, which would have meant I'd only had five birthdays to date. The town I was born in was a little place called Ayr (about an hour south of Townsville, which for all you non-Australians is about thirty hours north of Sydney) which, on Feb 29, 1988 was battered with a cyclone, forcing all the homes to be evacuated. This stress caused many of the March-due babies to be born prematurely, however my mother was strong and held on til the 19th of March.

2. I have lived in 13 different houses in 6 different towns/cities (8 if you include different suburbs within cities). I expect this number to rise to 15 houses in 8 towns/cities by the end of the year, but we shall see what happens!

3. Nick's law #1: You can never go wrong with a kebab.

4. Milk is the absolute best drink in the world. I will easily drink a litre/two pints in a day, sometimes more.

5. My favourite country is, of course, Australia. My second favourite country is Canada. Other than that, I have no ranking system, however, I have been to seven all up. This is another number I expect to rise by the end of the year.

6. As my mate Spurgeon quoted in a sermon once: "I'm a poor sinner and nothing at all; Jesus Christ is my all in all". This is true of me also, and I find my identity in Christ's sacrifice for my wrongdoings, which allows me to be reconciled with the creator of the universe. It's brilliant stuff, and it's for you too!

7. Charles Haddon Spurgeon is not really my mate, as he has been dead for 118 years. However, if he were not, I am sure that we WOULD be mates. As such, I shall continue to refer to him as "My mate Spurgeon". He was a good bloke.

8. After every movie I see, I look up the imdb.com trivia for it. Thus I am basically a treasure trove of useless information about all the movies I have seen, and a few that I have not. When asked where I get said information, I will attribute this to Fantales wrappers.

9. I have made many, many good friends over the past seven months' traveling, and thank God for Facebook granting me the ability to keep in touch with them! (You know who you are - if you're reading this and I met you somewhere other than Australia, pat yourself on the back. Thank you for being awesome!)

10. From what I have heard, in order to speak Welsh, you need only clear your throat in a variety of different ways. In order to do an Irish accent, you need to hold an 'E' shape with your mouth as you speak. Also, Finnish sounds like Japanese, but with a_lot more syllables.

11. I have also been taught that to write 'alot' is a sin at roughly the same level as murdering an entire family. There should be a space between the 'a' and the 'lot'. I never really noticed until I was told off for doing it wrong.

12. I am consistently amazed at how many Christians are completely unaware that there is a talking donkey in the Bible. What are Sunday school teachers doing? Numbers 22, people! Even donkeys speak of the glory of God!

13. I am descended from convicts on both sides of my family, making me almost as (white) Aussie as you can get. On Mum's side, William Ezzy stole a barrel of brewers' yeast and was sentenced to seven years in Australia. He arrived in 1789 (the year after its' founding), and his wife and kids came with him. His granddaughter was the first woman to own a shop in Aus or something like that. Dad's side came over in 1790 for stealing something or other, not sure what. So when all the English lot call me a convict, they are actually speaking quite accurately!

14. Apparently, if you trace the Collers' descendants back further than that, we came from one of the Wesleys. Not John or Charles as they had no kids, but one of their 11 (?) brothers and sisters. Pretty cool.

15. We had a pet cockatoo when I was four. For some strange reason, my parents and everyone else who knew us at the time deny its very existence and insist that we never had a cockatoo. But I distinctly remember having a pet cockatoo. History revisionists, the lot of them.

16. I played violin for a year when I was eight/nine, and hated it. Nowadays I really wish I'd continued, as it just annoys me that I know HOW to play the instrument, but can't make a good sound out of it.

17. My favourite movie of all time is 'Who Framed Roger Rabbit'. The creation of this film is a feat that will never again be repeated in history, as it was animated without the use of a single computer. When you watch it with that in mind, you become absolutely flabbergasted.

18. Along the lines of animation, it is my opinion that the greatest musical sequence in any movie ever was the 'Holding out for a hero' sequence in Shrek 2. It is a phenomenal piece of music that manages to capture the essence of the entire movie in four minutes.

19. I once almost ran out of petrol 100km into the bush, which required me to buy petrol off a one-armed man.

20. My favourite Bible passage of all time is Job 33:19-28 which you can read here: http://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Job%2033&version=31

21. Nick's Law #2: There is no place comfier for an afternoon nap than a trampoline.

22. The greatest video game ever created was Lylat Wars/Star Fox 64 (depending on which country you're from). I have spent many, many hours on the single player, and still find Corneria (the first level) absolutely epically brilliant.

23. The best car I've ever had (out of three thus far) was a blue '93 Holden (or Opel/Vauxhall for you Europeans) Calibra that I named Adrosteia (which means "She who cannot be escaped"). She was sadly run up the back of six weeks after buying her, and written off. I've never fully recovered from the loss. She was fantastic.

24. One of my favourite things to do is to get to know cool people. Because I've been travelling and realise that I only have limited time in each place, this has forced me to condense this process somewhat into getting to know people as quickly as I can. I suspect this may have freaked some people out, as it can appear that I am coming on very strong. I apologise if this is you, I just think you're cool!

25. As a result of getting to know those cool people, my OTHER favourite thing to do is introducing cool people to other cool people. So if anyone elsewhere wants to come to Australia, rest assured that you have a place to stay, and we'll meet lots of cool people. Any Aussies wanting to go to anywhere I know cool people, I'll hook you up. I love networking.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

I had forgotten your blog even existed but when I was eventually just reminded I read this one and giggled continuously for at least a minute. Fantales, donkeys, cockatoos and Calibras...ahh all classic Whiskers!!
you done good mans.

Ian Hugh Clary said...

"24. One of my favourite things to do is to get to know cool people. Because I've been travelling and realise that I only have limited time in each place, this has forced me to condense this process somewhat into getting to know people as quickly as I can. I suspect this may have freaked some people out, as it can appear that I am coming on very strong. I apologise if this is you, I just think you're cool!"

I actually thought you were quiet and unassuming.